CONCORD, N.C. — Marcos Ambrose will return to Richard Petty Motorsports for the 2014 Sprint Cup season. Whether he returns to his native Australia after that will depend on his performance next year.

"In 2014 is the year to get it done," Ambrose said Tuesday night at a sponsor unveiling just down the road from the team's headquarters. "It's time to deliver for me and the company. I think we've got more assets, more resources to go at it.

"I'm ready to bounce back from a tough 2013. It's been a hard year for me. It's hard to keep your head up. I sacrifice more than most to be here in America. I'm a long way from my family. I'm a long way from home. Every year away, you need good reasons to be here, and winning is a really good reason. That's what I'm all about in 2014. I want to win. I want to make the Chase."

Ambrose's No. 9 Ford team has regressed in his third season at RPM. After scoring consecutive wins at Watkins Glen International and top-20 finishes in the points standings in 2011-12, Ambrose is ranked 21st in NASCAR's premier series. With three races left, he has a best finish of sixth at Michigan International Speedway in August.

Since entering Cup in 2008, the road-course ace hasn't finished a season without a top five. But the downturn in performance doesn't seem to have impacted his marketability. Primary sponsor Stanley will return in 2014, and RPM announced Tuesday the addition of Twisted Tea (which is new to NASCAR) as the sponsor of the September 2014 race at Dover International Speedway and an associate sponsor on the hood of Ambrose's Fusion for 18 races next year.

"We haven't lost anything," Ambrose said of the sponsor lineup. "As other teams are downsizing, we're upsizing. That's a good thing."

Ambrose, who grew up in tiny Tasmania, is among the only international drivers to carve a niche in NASCAR. A two-time champion in the Australian V8 Supercar Series (and also a 1999 European Formula Ford titlist), he has talked openly about returning overseas someday.

"As my family matures, I've always promised that I'll give them a chance to enjoy Australia, too," the father of two said. "You have to balance everything out. I'm here for a finite time. I'm not saying 2014 is it, but there will come a time that my family will be bigger than my racing. My wife and kids love NASCAR, I love America. We love it here. But we have to make sure we keep a balance."

Ambrose arrived in the United States in 2006 with a five-year plan for stock cars and is about to finish his eighth season in NASCAR after advancing from the Camping World Truck and Nationwide series.

"I've done well, but we also still have a chance to run the very front at Sprint Cup," he said. "I've got unfinished business in NASCAR. To come to America on a wing and prayer and make it stick, I'm really proud of what I've done, and I've got a lot more to give.

"Richard Petty and the Petty family understand my situation better than everybody. I want nothing more than to give them the best chance of success, and 2014 is going to be the chance to get them to the next level being that breakout year."

RPM is a two-car team competing against the powerhouse organizations in Cup that field three and four cars, but Ambrose believes some rules changes next year will make it easier to compete.

"It's going to help teams like us with limited engineering," he said. "We can make changes at the track without having to worry about getting through inspection, which has been a real problem for us. If you aren't right before you get there, it's very hard to make the cars better in 2013. I think the new rules will suit us."